I heard his truck back way too fast into the driveway
and I smelled him before I saw him. I could hear his
boots squishing full of swamp-water and his excitement
was like fireworks inside the house.

"We found the lake!" he shouted to me. "It`s the one
they call Secret Lake and it`s way back in there, all
surrounded by swamp and dead trees and it`s full of pike
and ducks! They sent me back here to get the dogs and
the guns!"

He looked so bold and heroic when he turned around and
left that I didn't like to say that pike are not good
eating, being full of tiny bones. And anyhow, pike are
killer fish and had most probably cleaned out every other
kind of eating fish that might ever have been in that lake,
cleaned it out a long time ago. And at this time of year
those ducks were most likely just stopping off on their
way flying south and would up and take off the minute they
heard a twig snap or the smallest sound of a human voice.

So I didn`t like to say. Also at the time I was pregnant
again and the thought of fresh meat had a certain appeal.

Even now he talks about it to the kids sometimes, mutters
something about Secret Lake. He still can`t understand why
they came back empty.

11/09/2018